February 17, 2013

From the second paragraph of a NYT style article titled "Creating Hipsturbia" about NY suburb such as Hastings-on-Hudson. That bird business called to mind this segment from the TV show "Portlandia":

Anyway, the article is interesting and amusingly written, even if you don't worry about how suburbs can adapt to the tastes of "the type of alt-culture-allegiant urbanites who once considered themselves too cool to ever leave the city."

"Hipsturbia" is a good portmanteau word (if "good" includes making people who are trying to feel good about something feel bad).

To ward off the nagging sense that a move to the suburbs is tantamount to becoming like one’s parents, this urban-zen generation is seeking out palatable alternatives... and importing the trappings of a twee lifestyle like bearded mixologists, locavore restaurants and antler-laden boutiques.

How are they supposed to ward off nagging senses with the NYT dogging them like this? Don't these people know they are never ever ever supposed to leave the city — not for fresh air, not for adequate housing at a remotely decent price, not for good enough public schools, not for anything? If you leave you will be punished. You may try to get something that reminds you of the Real Life that can only be had in Brooklyn, but you will be pleasuring yourself with antlers.

"... suddenly she was again keeping half a dozen dates a day with half a dozen men, and drowsing asleep at dawn with the beads and chiffon of an evening dress tangled among antlers on the floor beside her bed."

Hipsters are one of many unfortunate byproducts of American freedom and wealth. Anyone who can attain advanced degrees costing hundreds of thousands, work in coffee shops but only in stylish neighborhoods, turn down square work that pays because it isnt meaningful (whatever that means), and somehow manage to make rent in some of the most expensive areas.

Must be nice to be such an individual, to be able to find yourself, to be able to do what you think necessary in pursuit of your own happiness, including self segregation. Carefree. Self-absorbed. Entitled. Precious.

I had an ironic mustache before it became popular and I live in the suburbs.

Pasadena is a suburb of LA right?

If you want to see hipster in full bloom, and you're not in the Northwest, go to a seminary campus, where young men and women are trying so hard to be relevant to the culture around them. I guess that's probably true for any graduate school, though.

I never quite adopted the hipster look, though elements of it certainly appeal. I can on occasion pose as one ironically. But I refuse to come anywhere near skinny jeans, and skinny jeans, for that matter, really refuse to do anything with me.